Sense and Sensibility

Key

FID

indirect

intro to FID or indirect

Chapter 25

Though Mrs. Jennings was in
the habit of spending a large portion of the year at the houses of her
children and friends, she was not without a settled habitation of her own.
Since the death of her husband, who had traded with success in a less
elegant part of the town, she had resided every winter in a house in one of
the streets near Portman Square. Towards this home, she began on the
approach of January to turn her thoughts, and thither she one day abruptly,
and very unexpectedly by them, asked the elder Misses Dashwood to accompany
her. Elinor, without observing the varying complexion of her sister, and the
animated look which spoke no indifference to the plan, immediately gave a
grateful but absolute denial for both, in which she believed herself to be
speaking their united inclinations. The reason alleged wastheir determined
resolution of not leaving their mother at that time of the year.Mrs. Jennings received the
refusal with some surprise, and repeated her invitation immediately.

"Oh, Lord! I am sure your
mother can spare you very well, and I DO beg you will favour me with your
company, for I've quite set my heart upon it. Don't fancy that you will be
any inconvenience to me, for I shan't put myself at all out of my way for
you. It will only be sending Betty by the coach, and I hope I can afford
THAT. We three shall be able to go very well in my chaise; and when we are
in town, if you do not like to go wherever I do, well and good, you may
always go with one of my daughters. I am sure your mother will not object to
it; for I have had such good luck in getting my own children off my hands
that she will think me a very fit person to have the charge of you; and if I
don't get one of you at least well married before I have done with you, it
shall not be my fault. I shall speak a good word for you to all the young
men, you may depend upon it."

"I have a
notion,"said Sir John, "that Miss Marianne
would not object to such a scheme, if her elder sister would come into
it. It is very hard indeed that she should not have a little pleasure,
because Miss Dashwood does not wish it. So I would advise you two, to
set off for town, when you are tired of Barton, without saying a word to
Miss Dashwood about it."

"Nay," cried Mrs.
Jennings,"I am sure I shall be
monstrous glad of Miss Marianne's company, whether Miss Dashwood will go
or not, only the more the merrier say I, and I thought it would be more
comfortable for them to be together; because, if they got tired of me,
they might talk to one another, and laugh at my old ways behind my back.
But one or the other, if not both of them, I must have. Lord bless me!
how do you think I can live poking by myself, I who have been always
used till this winter to have Charlotte with me. Come, Miss Marianne,
let us strike hands upon the bargain, and if Miss Dashwood will change
her mind by and bye, why so much the better."

"I thank you, ma'am,
sincerely thank you,"said Marianne, with
warmth: "your invitation has
insured my gratitude for ever, and it would give me such happiness, yes,
almost the greatest happiness I am capable of, to be able to accept it.
But my mother, my dearest, kindest mother, — I feel the justice of
what Elinor has urged, and if she were to be made less happy, less
comfortable by our absence — Oh! no, nothing should tempt me to
leave her. It should not, must not be a struggle."

Mrs. Jennings repeated her
assurance that Mrs. Dashwood could spare them perfectly well; and Elinor,
who now understood her sister, and saw to what indifference to almost every
thing else she was carried by her eagerness to be with Willoughby again,
made no farther direct opposition to the plan, and merely referred it to her
mother's decision, from whom however she scarcely expected to receive any
support in her endeavour to prevent a visit, which she could not approve of
for Marianne, and which on her own account she had particular reasons to
avoid.Whatever Marianne was
desirous of, her mother would be eager to promote — she could not
expect to influence the latter to cautiousness of conduct in an affair
respecting which she had never been able to inspire her with distrust; and
she dared not explain the motive of her own disinclination for going to
London.That Marianne, fastidious as
she was, thoroughly acquainted with Mrs. Jennings' manners, and invariably
disgusted by them, should overlook every inconvenience of that kind, should
disregard whatever must be most wounding to her irritable feelings, in her
pursuit of one object, was such a proof, so strong, so full, of the
importance of that object to her, as Elinor, in spite of all that had
passed, was not prepared to witness.

On being informed of the
invitation, Mrs. Dashwood, persuaded that such an excursion would be
productive of much amusement to both her daughters, and perceiving through
all her affectionate attention to herself, how much the heart of Marianne
was in it, would not hear of their declining the offer upon HER account;
insisted on their both accepting it directly; and then began to foresee,
with her usual cheerfulness, a variety of advantages that would accrue to
them all, from this separation.

"I am delighted with the
plan,"she cried, "it is exactly what I
could wish. Margaret and I shall be as much benefited by it as
yourselves. When you and the Middletons are gone, we shall go on so
quietly and happily together with our books and our music! You will find
Margaret so improved when you come back again! I have a little plan of
alteration for your bedrooms too, which may now be performed without any
inconvenience to any one. It is very right that you SHOULD go to town; I
would have every young woman of your condition in life acquainted with
the manners and amusements of London. You will be under the care of a
motherly good sort of woman, of whose kindness to you I can have no
doubt. And in all probability you will see your brother, and whatever
may be his faults, or the faults of his wife, when I consider whose son
he is, I cannot bear to have you so wholly estranged from each
other."

"Though with your usual
anxiety for our happiness,"said Elinor, "you have been obviating
every impediment to the present scheme which occurred to you, there is
still one objection which, in my opinion, cannot be so easily
removed."

Marianne's countenance
sunk.

"And what," said Mrs.
Dashwood, "is my dear prudent
Elinor going to suggest? What formidable obstacle is she now to bring
forward? Do let me hear a word about the expense of it."

"My objection is this; though
I think very well of Mrs. Jennings's heart, she is not a woman whose society
can afford us pleasure, or whose protection will give us
consequence."

"That is very
true,"replied her
mother, "but of her society,
separately from that of other people, you will scarcely have any thing
at all, and you will almost always appear in public with Lady
Middleton."

"If Elinor is frightened
away by her dislike of Mrs. Jennings," said Marianne, "at least it need not
prevent MY accepting her invitation. I have no such scruples, and I am
sure I could put up with every unpleasantness of that kind with very
little effort."

Elinor could not help
smiling at this display of indifference towards the manners of a person, to
whom she had often had difficulty in persuading Marianne to behave with
tolerable politeness; and resolved within herself, that if her sister
persisted in going, she would go likewise, as she did not think it proper
that Marianne should be left to the sole guidance of her own judgment, or
that Mrs. Jennings should be abandoned to the mercy of Marianne for all the
comfort of her domestic hours. To this determinationshe wasthe more easily reconciled,
byrecollecting thatEdward Ferrars, by
Lucy's account, was not to be in town before February; and that their visit,
without any unreasonable abridgement, might be previously finished.

"I will have you BOTH
go,"said Mrs.
Dashwood;"these objections are
nonsensical. You will have much pleasure in being in London, and
especially in being together; and if Elinor would ever condescend to
anticipate enjoyment, she would foresee it there from a variety of
sources; she would, perhaps, expect some from improving her acquaintance
with her sister-in-law's family."

Elinor had often wished for
an opportunity of attempting to weaken her mother's dependence on the
attachment of Edward and herself, that the shock might be less when the
whole truth were revealed, and now on this attack, though almost hopeless of
success, she forced herself to begin her design by saying, as calmly as she
could, "I like Edward Ferrars very
much, and shall always be glad to see him; but as to the rest of the family,
it is a matter of perfect indifference to me, whether I am ever known to
them or not."

Mrs. Dashwood smiled, and
said nothing. Marianne lifted up her eyes in astonishment, andElinor conjectured
thatshe might as well
have held her tongue.

After very little farther
discourse, it was finally settled that the invitation should be fully
accepted. Mrs. Jennings received the information with a great deal of joy,
and many assurances of kindness and care; nor was it a matter of pleasure
merely to her. Sir John was delighted; for to a man, whose prevailing
anxiety was the dread of being alone, the acquisition of two, to the number
of inhabitants in London, was something. Even Lady Middleton took the
trouble of being delighted, which was putting herself rather out of her way;
and as for the Miss Steeles, especially Lucy,they had never
been so happy in their lives as this intelligence made them.

Elinor submitted to the
arrangement which counteracted her wishes with less reluctance than she had
expected to feel. With regard to herself,it was now a matter
of unconcern whether she went to town or not,and when she saw her mother
so thoroughly pleased with the plan, and her sister exhilarated by it in
look, voice, and manner, restored to all her usual animation, and elevated
to more than her usual gaiety, she could not be dissatisfied with the cause,
and would hardly allow herself to distrust the consequence.

Marianne's joy was almost a
degree beyond happiness, so great was the perturbation of her spirits and
her impatience to be gone. Her unwillingness to quit her mother was her only
restorative to calmness; and at the moment of parting her grief on that
score was excessive. Her mother's affliction was hardly less, and Elinor was
the only one of the three, who seemed to consider the separation as any
thing short of eternal.

Their departure took place
in the first week in January. The Middletons were to follow in about a week.
The Miss Steeles kept their station at the park, and were to quit it only
with the rest of the family.